Employability and Career Success for the New Age Generation in the 21st Century

Running Head: STRATEGIC POINTS
Employability and Career Success for the New Age Generation in the 21st Century
PSY830
Grand Canyon University
December 21, 2019

College of Doctoral Studies
Topic
Employability and Career Success for the New Age Generation in the 21st Century
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Introduction/ Topic area:

College of Doctoral Studies
Workplace and career possibilities have undergone unprecedented changes in the 21st
century. This drastic change has emerged with the introduction of factors like globalization,
competitiveness, new technologies and environmental changes. All these factors have become
the major driver of change and have significantly influenced career prospective and work
patterns too. Globalization is the set of changes that has significantly transformed human
experience both in education and workplace. Some of the drastic changes that have been seen in
the workplace include more number of mergers and acquisition, formation of new industries,
increased customer demands, outsourcing and portfolio working. As the dynamics and patterns
of work are changing, the millennial generation in the 21st century needs to put additional effort
in strengthening their career development. Adaptation of new skills and attitude towards work
needs to be accepted. The main aim of this research is to educate current generation about factors
that may affect employability and career success in the 21st century and recommend about new
skills and attributes that is needed to excel in career today.
Literature review:
The importance of research in this area is also understood from the review of current
literature reporting about challenges in career management in the 21st century. According to
Brewer (2013), major turbulence and environmental changes has been seen in the job market.
This has resulted in shorter and more frequent job cycles. These type of circumstances are
changing the manner in which career decisions are taken and compels aspirants to change the
speed at which they make new choices in their career (Callanan, Perri & Tomkowicz, 2017).
Hence, flexibility is one of the new demands for job aspirants in the 21st century. For continous

College of Doctoral Studies
professional development, new skills like employee flexibility and willingness to develop new
skills has become a necessity. Christensen and Schneider (2015) also reports that the most
critical issue facing earning members in the family today are economic crisis and flexible work
patterns. What is not known is that whether workers are in a better position to obtain career
flexibility or fit into the collective flexibility arrangements or not. Hence, primary research work
on this aspect might shed light to things that are currently needed to excel in career today and
understand how far the new generation is prepared to embrace a turbulent work environment.
Research evidence also points out to several incidents of loss of jobs, high degree of
unemployment and low degree of employment participation. Litchfield et al. (2016) explains that
loss of job and long duration of worklessness is associated with high rate of physical and mental
problems in people such as anxiety, depression, heart attack and hypertension. These are the ill-
effect of changing employment patterns. Some of the possible solution suggested by the author
includes strengthening flexibility and engaging in lifelong learning strategies. Another researcher
argues that the introduction of temporary and uncertain nature of work has resulted in many new
terms in employment such as freelancers, alternative work arrangement and independent contract
work (Christensen & Schneider, 2015). Although taking career decision has been hectic in the
past too, however it has become a more creative process in the 21st century. Storme and Celik
(2018) conducted a research based on the belief that those who have higher level of self-efficacy
beliefs are less likely to experience difficulties in their career decision making. The research was
done with 415 undergraduate students and it confirmed that those who have low self efficacy can
suffer from career confusion. This research was restricted to evaluating impact of self-efficacy